The 3rd Annual Newport Beach Wine & Food Festival begins Sept. 29 and runs through Oct. 3. Take a closer look at featured restaurants and chefs serving up delicious bites for guests. For tickets and additional information, visit NewportWineandFood.com.
Tackle Box | Brian Huskey
Tackle Box is Top Chef alum Brian Huskey’s fast-casual concept located right on the sand on Corona Del Mar State Beach. Providing the community with quick, simple, and unique flavors, Chef Huskey executes a menu full of delicious “flavor bombs.” Drawing from his culinary travels, Huskey’s interpretation of community through food has translated into Tackle Box. With waterfront dining, Huskey sees Tackle Box as an epicenter of fresh honest food for the masses.
Tackle Box serves flavorful sandwiches like their “Cali” cheesesteak, pork belly “banh mi”, and shrimp roll to dishes like their salmon poke, buffalo cauliflower, and chowder chicharron. Weekly specials are served as well on weekends, enjoy their popular lobster roll on squid ink bread. Don’t forget about their crunchy beef tacos on taco Tuesdays and, of course, Tackle Box’s famous breakfast burrito! Follow us @tackleboxoc.
Tackle Box
3029 E. Shore Ave. | Corona Del Mar | 949-723-0502
tackleboxoc.com
Waterline | Rachel Haggstrom
Waterline Newport Beach, with its contemporized nautical design, is a California coastal seafood-inspired and refined full-service restaurant along the waterfront featuring an alluring water-to-table experience. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, Waterline, headed by Executive Chef Rachel Haggstrom offers a seasonal menu focused on the freshest seafood and highest quality ingredients with a chef driven concept – a perfectly comfortable and relaxed environment to enjoy delectable cuisine in a beautiful waterfront location.
Waterline Newport Beach
1221 West Coast Highway | Newport Beach | 877-725-9257
WaterlineNewport.com
Café Beau Soleil | Pascal Gimenez
Pascal Gimenez is the general manager and executive chef at Café Beau Soleil. He found his passion in food early during his childhood while growing up in the Loire Valley learning to bake and cook from his mother. He studied physics at the School National of Chemistry, Physics and Biology and at Jussieu University in Paris. His early taste in food took him from the world of science into culinary where he has worked for more than 20 years learning all aspects of the industry.
Chef Pascal believes in using local ingredients and gets many of his inspiration from seasonal products. He creates a weekly menu with finds from the farmers market and serving fresh and high quality food to his Café Beau Soleil guests is a commitment that he takes with great pride and responsibility.
Pascal moved from France to California in 2001. He loves being in Newport Beach and when he is not at the Café he is with his most precious creation, his daughter.
Cafe Beau Soleil
953 Newport Center Drive | Newport Beach | 949-640-4402
cafebeausoleil.net
The Loft | Michael Campbell
The Loft at Montage Laguna Beach welcomes new Chef de Cuisine, Michael Campbell. Having worked in restaurants around the world, Campbell will use his culinary expertise to oversee all operations of the restaurant, including leading the restaurant’s team of chefs, sommeliers, servers and fromagiers. With over 20 years of experience in the culinary industry, Campbell’s passion for cuisine has led him to work in restaurants throughout Europe and the West Coast, most recently serving as Executive Chef at Pueblo in Costa Mesa, Calif. where he oversaw the restaurant’s opening. “We are delighted to welcome Michael Campbell to the Montage Laguna Beach family,” said Rick Riess, Managing Director of Montage Laguna Beach. “We are confident Campbell’s eye for the culinary arts will thrive at The Loft and further enrich the restaurant’s interactive guest experience.”
The Loft at the Montage Laguna Beach
30801 South Coast Hwy. | Laguna Beach | 866-271-6953
montagehotels.com
Maggiano’s Little Italy |Anastacio Rodriguez
Chef Anastacio’s culinary drive started at the age of 14 and has not stopped. Being inspired in his mother’s kitchen, his passion for cooking grew into an insatiable appetite for creativity. He started his journey with Maggiano’s in the Spring of 2013. With Maggiano’s, he traveled the beautiful countryside of Italy where he discovered the city of Parma. From this culinary mecca, he brought back the taste of the regions and the passion of simple, fresh, flavorful ingredients.
Maggiano’s specializes in serving homemade, classic Italian-American cuisine in a warm and friendly atmosphere. All of the 50 locations are open daily for lunch and dinner and offers a convenient carryout and delivery service, in addition to beautiful and accommodating banquet spaces.
Maggiano’s Little Italy
3333 Bristol Street | Costa Mesa | 714-546-9550
Maggianos.com
Sam & Harry’s | Andy Arndt
Growing up, Chef Andy Arndt could be found in the kitchen with his mom, cooking family meals. It was there, at the family home in the small town of Ramona, California, he developed a passion for creating memorable dishes. Now the Executive Chef at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa, Chef Andy has an accomplished culinary career spanning more than twenty years, including time at Boulevard, Grammercy Tavern, The French Laundry and Ojai Valley Inn & Spa. Returning to Southern California is a homecoming for him, and he takes great pride in using locally-sourced ingredients to make his friendly brand of inventive cuisine come to life at the hotel’s restaurant, Sam & Harry’s. Chef Andy’s goal is to provide local guests and international travels alike a dining experience representative of the destination. Pair his creations with an extensive wine list, curated cocktails true to their roots or local craft beer for an experience that will leave you talking long after the last course is served!
Sam & Harry’s
900 Newport Center Dr. | Newport Beach | 949-729-6900
Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa | Peter Lai
Peter started his culinary background while working in his family’s restaurants since he was little. Growing up in the kitchens led him to develop his love and passion for the culinary arts. Instead of participating in after school activities he worked into every aspect of a restaurant from dishwasher, prep cook, line cook, and even serving.
He pursued a degree at the University of Texas and earned a Bachelor’s of Culinary Arts with the Le Cordon Bleu program. He maintained the same work ethic growing up and received the honor of being the school’s Summa Cum Laude. He started his Hyatt career as a Corporate Management Trainee at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa in May 2008 and advanced to Huntington Beach last December as the AM Watertable Sous Chef. He’s done a great job with both breakfast and lunch. Currently he is the Chef de Cuisine for the Watertable Restaurant and looks over the restaurant’s operations.
Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa
21500 Pacific Coast Hwy. | Huntington Beach |
714-845-4885
Driftwood Kitchen | Ranier Schwarz
Just a short, scenic drive down the coast, Driftwood Kitchen delights palates with an ocean-to-table dining experience. Helming the kitchen—which serves up seafood, steaks, hand-shucked oysters and craft cocktails—is executive chef and partner Ranier Schwarz. Born in Austria, the accomplished chef has traveled the world to work in a five-star hotels and restaurants in Switzerland, Germany and France. He draws inspiration from these exotic locales to bring a fresh twist to driftwood’s contemporary California cuisine. And though his dishes are plated with an inventive flair, Schwarz believes in simple preparations to focus on the freshness and quality of his ingredients. With this philosophy kept top of mind, breakfast, lunch and dinner at Driftwood become culinary adventures under Schwarz’s direction: Enjoy savory morning plates or seasonal entrees that are as pleasing to the eye as they are to the palate. Accenting the chef’s mouthwatering offerings is a backdrop of ocean views—the ideas setting to raise a glass and toast the day.
Driftwood Kitchen
619 Sleepy Hollow Ln. | Laguna Beach | 949-715-7700
driftwoodkitchen.com
